Trump's lawyers ask full appeals court to review gag order restricting his speech in election case

WASHINGTON — Lawyers for Donald Trump have asked the full federal appeals court in Washington to review a silence order restricting the former president's speech in the case accusing him of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.

The request follows a decision Monday by a three-judge panel of the appeals court that upheld but scaled back a silence order that barred Trump from verbally attacking witnesses for their participation in the case and placed other restrictions on what he can say.

In requesting that the full court hear the case, Trump's lawyers argued that the panel's decision earlier this month contradicted Supreme Court precedent and rulings from other appeals courts. They said a new consideration was necessary “both to ensure the uniformity of the decisions of this Court and because of the exceptional importance of the issue.”

“This petition presents a question of exceptional importance: whether a district court can silence the core political speech of the leading candidate for president of the United States—ignoring the First Amendment rights of more than 100 million American voters—on the basis of speculation about an undefined possible future harm to the judicial process,” the lawyers wrote.

The gag order was imposed by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in October in response to concerns from special counsel Jack Smith's team that Trump's pattern of inflammatory comments could taint proceedings, intimidate witnesses and influence jurors.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the silence order but modified it in significant ways, giving Trump the freedom to publicly criticize Smith. The panel said that while he could make general comments about known or expected witnesses, he could not attack them directly on their involvement in the case or on the content of their expected testimony.

The silence order issue is one of several pending lawsuits ahead of Trump's election subversion trial, currently scheduled for March 4.

Last week, Smith's team asked the U.S. Supreme Court to quickly rule on an appeal against Trump, claiming that as a former president he is immune from prosecution. Trump's team will respond to that request in a legal letter on Wednesday. The Washington-based federal appeals court last week granted prosecutors' request to expedite the hearing of Trump's appeal.

In the meantime, Chutkan has ordered a pause in the proceedings while the appeal is pending.